1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a message analyzing apparatus that analyzes messages related to a state of hardware configuring a computer, which messages are generated by software managing the hardware.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, to enhance reliability and the like of a computer, an administrator of the computer must regularly (or irregularly) acquire messages including an operational state of the computer and information such as an error (hereinafter, error message) from the computer, to identify the location of an error in the computer, and correct the identified error.
However, the messages outputted from the computer include not only the error message but also various kinds of information, and the amount of the messages is considerable. Therefore, a great burden is imposed on the administrator analyzing the messages, and identifying and correcting an error in the computer.
Recently, dictionary information that consists of regular expressions associated with plural error messages is previously generated. Based on this dictionary information, the great amount of messages outputted from the computer is narrowed down only to error messages. Accordingly, the amount of messages to be analyzed by the administrator is reduced to lessen the burden on the administrator.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-351894 describes a technology of adding attributes to messages outputted from a computer, and coupling these messages based on coupling information that defines the order of coupling of these attributes and the like, thereby rearranging the messages in an optimal order.
However, in the conventional technology, the amount of messages to be analyzed by the administrator can be reduced to some extent, while when finally identifying the location of an error, the administrator must consider correlation among plural kinds of error messages outputted from drivers or applications of different layers, and analyze each of the error messages to identify the location of an error. Therefore, a substantial burden is still impacted on the administrator.
When the location of an error is identified based on plural error messages, specialized information is required. Therefore, the administrator must contact a designer of the computer about the error messages to identify the error location, resulting in great inefficiency and increase in the cost.
That is, to lessen the burden on the administrator and to efficiently determine the location of an error in the computer considering the correlation among error messages is a greatly important subject.
The present invention has been achieved in view of the problem above mentioned. An object of the present invention is to provide a message analyzing apparatus that can lessen the burden on the administrator and efficiently determine the location of an error in the computer considering the correlation among error messages.